Published 4:00 am, Friday, October 31, 2003

Serial rapist Patrick Ghilotti took the stand Thursday in Marin County Superior Court and tearfully expressed remorse, promising to never harm another person again.

Ghilotti, with his close-cropped hair and round glasses, testified emotionally for about an hour and a half on the empathy he felt for his nine victims, and of his dreams of working construction and reuniting with his wife,

Janet, in her Vacaville home.

Known as the "Lincoln Avenue Rapist," the twice-convicted Ghilotti, 47, has spent more than half of his life behind bars -- either in prison or at Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County.

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A 12-member jury in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Stephen Graham is considering the state's petition to keep Ghilotti in the state hospital. During this unusual trial, the jurors must decide whether Ghilotti has a mental disorder that leads to his proclivity for violent acts against women. His trial, expected to wrap up in early November, was attended Thursday by several of his victims.

"It was just an act," one woman who declined to be publicly identified said of Ghilotti's testimony. "He was crying and playing the system -- at the appropriate times he even had a tear."

Ghilotti, who is a member of a prominent San Rafael construction business family, wants to become the first sexually violent predator to be returned to the community without any special conditions. In August 2002 he was voluntarily castrated.

The state's 1996 sexually violent predator law allows the state to keep serial offenders confined in a state hospital after their prison term has ended. But critics say that Ghilotti's case raises questions about when an offender has repaid his debt to society. Marin County Prosecutor Alan Charmatz said two psychologists had recommended that Ghilotti remain in the state hospital until 2005.

But Marin County Public Defender Ed Farrell said Ghilotti, in an effort to reduce his sex drive, voluntarily took medication that cut his testosterone levels to boyhood levels and had extensive therapy to gain insight into his violent acts against women.

At Gov. Gray Davis' behest, Ghilotti's case went before the state Supreme Court last year. In April 2002, the high court's decision set the criteria for mental health experts: Sex offenders may remain incarcerated if they pose a "substantial danger" to others. In 1979, Ghilotti was convicted of raping three San Rafael women. After serving half of a six-year sentence, he was convicted again in 1985 of raping a Ross woman. He served 12 years and, in March 1998, was sent to a state hospital under California's sexually violent predator law.